Frankie the fox red lab

[Rachel2832]

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Hi, this is my almost 2 yr old fox red lab Frankie

 

[Josie]

Welcome to the forum! She's gorgeous

 

[Jack-Russell-Lover]

Welcome, she is so beautiful! Lovely colour
Really fab picture too!

 

[JudyN]

Welcome!

 

[arealhuman]

Welcome to your and your lovely friend

 

[Whippylove]

Welcome

 

[Kayak]

He's lovely, he's got the same cowlick up between his eyes as my dog I love his pink nose

 

[Violet Turner]

Welcome can i take her home?

 

[leashedForLife]

He's lovely, he's got the same cowlick up between his eyes as my dog. I love his pink nose.

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that's a very interesting comment! - it leads to [IMO] a fascinating tidbit about fetal development.

Cowlicks & other hair-turnings are laid down in utero at the same time that the basic central-nervous system & brain are being wired; cowlicks on the head, chest, neck, & shoulders or spine, can be associated with brain or behavior quirks.
Maybe U guys should compare behavioral quirks that Ur dogs might share?... Do they both prefer to drink from the faucet, rather than from still water in a bowl? Do they both dislike slick floors, or find "glare" spots on shiny surfaces fascinating?
Inquiring minds...

In horses, gypsies believe that a "wheat's ear" hair turning on a horse's chest or head is very bad luck; such horses are said to be crazy & untrustworthy.
More on whorls on horses' coats -
wheat's ear cowlick on a horse - Google Search

cowlicks & hair-whorls in all species, vis-a-vis neurology -
cowlicks + neurology - Google Search

I can't wait to hear what behavior blips Frankie & @Kayak 's dog might share.
- terry

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[JoanneF]

The first article featured in the Google search says that everyone (it's about humans) has a cowlick though - it's just less visible in some people because of hair styling. So that sort of wipes out that argument doesn't it?

 

[leashedForLife]

The first article featured in the Google search says that everyone (it's about humans) has a cowlick though - it's just less visible in some people because of hair styling.

So that sort of wipes out that argument, doesn't it?

.

what "argument", @JoanneF ?

Nobody's "arguing" - I pointed out some stuff that i've found interesting, & in fact, fairly predictive., in some instances.

My half-Morgan stud colt was a yearling when i bought him, & a 3-YO when i sold him; Finnegan had a clear, prominent wheat-ear on his chest - true to the gypsy lore, he could be sweet as pie, or a furious maniac.
His yearling-into-2-YO summer, i replanted the middle pasture, & had to keep the horses OFF the sprouting grasses until the turf was well-established, or it would be cut down by their hooves & teeth, & my time & effort would be wasted. That summer, every night, i walked my mare to my neighbor's fallow field of knee-high bluestem, staked my mare, & left the colt run free. I'd bring along a quilt, a book, & a red-hooded flashlight. While the horses grazed, i'd read; when the colt lay down to sleep, wherever he was, i'd walk to him, lay the quilt folded in half, & lie down so that my head rested on his shoulder.
My mare would graze, or sleep standing, off & on, all night - she was a grown-up; he still slept lying down. // Before he got up, he'd turn his head to nose me, I'd wake & sit up, then he'd get up.
The next summer, i could no more imagine sleeping against him than i could fantasize about sleeping cuddled with a leopard, or sleeping beside a wild elephant. PART of that was simply age - but he'd always had a quick temper; he was never properly weaned from his dam, a backyard horse in a 20-ft square pen, with a garden-shed as a stable; he'd throw tantrums whenever U stopped him doing as he pleased, & at least once a day, starting 2 or 3 weeks after he arrived at 12-MO, he'd attempt to run down & attack my dog.
My dog had been reared from puphood around livestock; he never harassed or provoked a domestic animal in his life, & he actually liked horses. He was a great pal of Ginny's, my Arab-X mare, & he'd hang out with our boarder's Appy gelding by the hour. He quickly learned to fear Finnegan, & to watch him like a hawk - Finnegan would suddenly charge at him, & do his best to catch him, with his mouth wide open, ears flat, & head down, snaking his head side to side & clapping his teeth as he tried to grab him. Luckily, Wolf was young, healthy, & fit - Finnegan never managed to grab him, b/c step 2 would have been stomping him, smashing him against the fence [as he did the double-ply corrugated cardboard lettuce cases i brought home, as 'toys' for him], or just shaking him like a rag-doll till he snapped.
There was no doubt in my mind that if Finnegan caught Wolf, he'd do his damnedest to kill him; this wasn't the least bit playful. Wolf saw it that way, too - he never trusted him & kept a wary distance, while he'd walk right by the heels of the other horses in the pasture without a qualm.

I didn't hear about the wheat-ear whorl until he was already 3-YO, shortly before the unexpected death of my mare, so i didn't tailor my facts to fit the myth - from the 1st few weeks, handling Finnegan was always like juggling nitroglycerin or old dynamite; it was nerve-wracking, unstable, unpredictable.
He's the only horse i've ever had with a wheat-ear, so it's not as tho i have a statistically significant sample; OTOH, after rearing & training him, i wouldn't buy another horse with a wheat-ear, ever. Once was definitely enough!

When Ginny suddenly died, Finnegan was frantic to escape, & despite heavy tranquilizers, was trying to force the fence. Our boarders were gone; they'd either bought property, or built their own paddocks. He'd never been alone in his life, before. // She died on Sunday night; by Tuesday afternoon, i'd already contacted every boarding stable in the area, & been turned down by every one for a box stall to get him into a new setting for a while. Tuesday evening, he was loaded into a trailer & hauled to Doylestown, to be sold at auction on Wed night.

FWIW, Ginny was a remarkably bomb-proof & sane mare; I bought her as an unbroken 3-YO when i was 15, & trained her myself; she died at 10. My POA mare post-college was similarly sane, & both had midline simple clockwise whorls between & slightly above their eyes, while my crazy, mean childhood pony, Cotton, who was solid white, had a linear whorl running vertically between & BELOW his eyes. He was a monster who deliberately trod on feet, would crowd U into the stall-wall, run U under clotheslines or tree-branches to try to throttle U or knock U from his back, or race along fencelines to try to smash yer knees.

more in horses -
What's in a Whorl?

Hair whorl (horse) - Wikipedia

_________________________________________________

I had another significant encounter with a heavily-cowlicked animal, over 20-years later:
I was living in Norfolk's Ocean View neighborhood, ~2009 /'10, & a few houses down, a young woman owned 2 Dachsies & several cats. // The cats were free-roaming, & I had to tell her that one of her cats had been hurt & was lying up under a neighbor's porch, in the crawl-space.
We got to talking a few days later when i stopped on the sidewalk, on my way home; she was working in her garden, & i stopped to ask how the cat was doing. The younger dog began to bark like a nutcase, & she picked her up & held her in her arms firmly to settle her. That's when i saw the cowlicks - she had 3, a clockwise whorl on her occiput, a wavering line down the back of her neck, & a counterclockwise whorl on her withers. The standing hair along her cervical vertebrae joined the 2 whorls; it wasn't straight, but made a slightly scalloped line.
I asked her if I could take a picture of the whorls with my phone, & she said OK - I snapped a couple of shots, & asked if she'd ever had a seizure? - she looked surprised, & said yes; she'd begun seizing shortly after her 2nd birthday.
She was then 4-YO; the older dog was her dam, & both were red smooth-coated minis, very inbred; they were puppy-mill rescues, from an ASPCA raid.
She was prescribed Lithium, & her seizures were well-controlled & very rare.

A cowlick is generally normal, yes - just as specific hair-growth patterns are on the body. (Ever notice that hair on humans grows in a way that streamlines us, for swimming? - there's no reason for a terrestrial animal to have body hair that sweeps along to minimize turbulence in water, but there it is. It's a fact.)

Multiple cowlicks, or the size of a single cowlick, or it's shape, or where it's located, can each be significant factors in differentiating an unexceptional ordinary cowlick, from a significator of possible problems.

a recommended inspection of newborn infants' scalp hair -
Medscape: Medscape Access

Note the mention that double hair-whorls can indicate abnormal brain development -
QUOTE, photo captions:
"Note double hair whorl.
Multiple hair whorls may indicate abnormal brain growth. Photograph courtesy of David Clark, MD."
"Unruly hair after the newborn period may indicate poor brain growth. In this term infant, unruly hair is normal. Photograph courtesy of David Clark, MD."
text quote:
"Infants with underlying brain abnormalities may have abnormal hair patterning, such as a striking frontal upsweep, or multiple parietal whorls. [footnote 2]"

Double-crowns are often associated with ADD / ADHD, especially in boys. // I will also note that the highly-inbred surviving Florida Key cougars, an endangered subspecies, all sported spinal cowlicks, & new genes were introduced deliberately by releasing unrelated male pumas from other regions, into Florida.

There's a research paper of data collected on 1,636 cattle in the auction ring, at 6 large auctions in TX & CO, observing their behavior in the ring [agitation vs calm, aggressive vs co-operative], then noting which cattle had cowlicks, & where they were located - above or below the eye, & either lateral or midline.
A note on hair whorl position and cattle temperament in the auction ring

I just find this an interesting area, where neurology, behavior, & a physical trait intersect.
- terry

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[thedogsbeforetime]

Frankie is a very handsome dog!

 

[JoanneF]

what "argument",

Argument as in "a reason or set of reasons given in support of an idea, action or theory."
I wasn't suggesting conflict. I'm afraid I haven't read the remainder of your last post. Lets get this thread back on track.